A session to be held at “Space, Haunting, Discourse,” an interdisciplinary conference sponsored by theDepartment of English at Karlstad University, Sweden, June 15-18, 2006.

Session Description:

Shakespeare’s plays have been a near constant reference for definitions of modernity. They are also crucial toconceptions of haunting. How can we articulate these two strands?

Shakespeare’s ghosts continue to haunt topographies of the haunted spaces of modernity. From Derrida’sspecters and spirits to evocations of the phantasmatic old mole of revolution, reworkings of the supernatural inmodernity continue to return to a set of figures from Shakespeare’s plays, especially _Hamlet_. I seek to bringtogether new approaches to this ghostly aspect of the Shakespearean contribution to the social imaginary. Howhave Shakespeare’s ghosts and spirits haunted representations of ideology, politics, and social space? Whatkinds of questions have been tied to Shakespeare’s ghosts?

The range of possible topics is wide. Reconsiderations of the political and ideological work of the supernaturalin the wake of _Specters of Marx_ are welcome. Still more welcome are contributions that trace the afterlife ofthe supernatural in Shakespeare outside more familiar contexts, spaces, or discourses. I would be especiallyinterested in discussions that show how Shakespeare’s ghosts have been linked to modernity in social andpolitical contexts outside Europe and the U.S.A.

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Please send abstracts of 250-300 words, for presentations of 15-20 minutes, to the e-mail address below.Please include contact information. No attachments, please.

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